“Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master.”

-Phil Kolter


Marketing is much, much, much more than getting more fans through social media, sending out emails and blogging. It is much more than uploading videos to online social media and posting status updates. It is much more than taking out online advertising and handing out flyers. These things and the other things like them are simply the tactics – the things that you need to do in order to enact a strategy that will help you reach your objectives. Marketing needs a campaign. A campaign starts with an idea.

I recently asked the above question on my Facebook Page and it seemed like no one really knew the answer. Which is a little scary because that means some folks don't really know why they are doing what they are doing. So to clear this up here is the first page from my new upcoming report "

The 7 Big Mistakes That Indie Musicians Make In Music Business"


"Mistake #1

They Don’t Understand Finance.

"A fool and his money are soon parted." - Unknown

This is an extremely common mistake amongst many small independent artists and studio/labels. The main reason behind this lack of financial education is the desire to get some kind of record deal. Many seem to not understand that a record deal is a type of financing or investment. An understanding of how to manage money is crucial to being successful with any type of investment in the first place be it a label deal, a loan or crowdfunding. Just because you get the cash doesn’t mean you can make a success of the next phase of your business which is what investment points to. Too few of the small independent music business organisations understand that the act of marketing their music products and services is the vehicle to making sales and therefore revenue. Marketing is not the path to a record deal. It is entirely possible to create a thriving small music business and once this is established it is entirely possible to grow this business but the only thing that will facilitate this process is your increased financial literacy.

So what are the advantages of understanding money? Well, if you understand money then you will understand business and you better understand music business – which is a business after all; and the purpose of business is to create a customer and in turn a sale and repeated sales. Many small independent music businesses have a dream of making a living doing what they love in music; planning for your financial future is the cornerstone to making this dream a reality. Making a comfortable living doing what you love is a goal and to achieve goals you need to plan for them and know how to set them. Poor financial literacy means making poor financial decisions which can lead to a standard of living which is below what you truly deserve. The disadvantage of poor financial decisions means moving further away from your short term and long term goals not only within the areas of money and business but also in life.

Learning money management will influence how far you go in life. It will influence whether you can do that music business degree to whether you can buy that new equipment for your recording studio to paying for your new home and of course being able to live. It will also influence whether you can live comfortably in your retirement years.

The health of your finances is directly linked to the health of your financial education. If you boost your standards in your financial literacy your finances will boost too."

Chapter 4 is titled "What Is Fan Experience?" Here are a couple of paragraphs.

"For the music business engaging in a fan experience push the benefits are many for example it is possible to identify your biggest fans and single them out for loyalty rewards and promotional offers. The return on investment translates into more money spent over the long term. You also reduce the cost of obtaining new fans. When there is a positive buzz about the music new fans follow. You can also increase fan “retention” – now this might seem like an odd term as once a fan is a fan they tend to remain a fan, however it is normal for lifelong fans to become unresponsive over time. Whilst they may have been a fan at one point they now need reactivating and this is a cost. If a fan’s attention can be retained over a longer period of time and the music product and services are more “sticky” you can create additional revenue. Social media enables organisations to forge an emotional connection with consumers. This information gives organisations a richer picture of fans' preferences. This also empowers them to provide targeted music products and services at accurate price-points and more convenient distribution outlets, and ultimately resulting in better business.


It is important to understand that fan experience is very different to fan management. The former of course deals with experience the latter deals with relationship. You need both but here is how they differ. Fan experience captures a fan’s subjective thoughts about the music no matter how conflicting for example from initially disliking a track on the first few listens to then loving the same track and subsequently buying the whole album based on the repeated listens on that one same track. Fan management simply captures what a fan knows about the music for example the details of all purchases or what they know about the artist and music. Fan management is company centric and concentrates on managing the fans for maximum company efficiency. Fan experience is of course fan centric and focuses on the processes of a music business around the needs of the fans. With fan management we are looking at how valuable fans are to the organisation with fan experience the table is turned, fan experience means we begin to understand how valuable the organisation is to the fan. Furthermore, understanding the fan’s emotional experiences can ensure a solid return on investment. Emotions drive our lives so this means that emotions drive the fans, especially when it comes to their music! If the quality of our lives is the quality of our emotions then it stand to reason that the quality of a music business is the quality of the emotions of its fans."

 






 

An excerpt from my forthcoming book.



Chapter 3 - The Music Belongs To The Fans

“Our fans make the band. What they give we give right back. They're an integral part of us. They ARE us.” Jonathan Davis (Korn)

We have already decided that music is a fundamental communication channel and connection technology. We also know that music has the power to produce deep, powerful physical, emotional and spiritual effects on its composers and listeners. We know that more music is consumed on a daily basis today than at any point in history because of the massive progress in technology over the last twenty years. As a result we now have more music genres available to us than ever before and many different ways of consuming those music genres compared to just the one way of buying and listening to the music – generally alone. However, before musical performance was frozen in time via recordings including sheet music - who actually “owned” music?

We already understand that a recording is a mechanical performance and that the format is the receptacle for that performance, however there was a time in history when there was no receptacle. So who owned music? I suggest that the fans play a great part in “ownership” of music. Without listeners music may not have a purpose or a function unless you are writing for your own private pleasure. Let’s view this from a different perspective. What makes a record stand the test of time? Is it the performance? Is it the production? Might it be the composition itself? Or is it the love of the fans? Is it possible that the fans make the record stand the test of time? Who will validate music if not the fans? If music isn’t for the fans or notional fans then who is it for? Furthermore, if music isn’t for the fans then why should anyone listen or even care? Music is a social activity and because no music can truly be created in isolation, that is to say all music is in some manner inspired by other music or human activity; we might well argue that music is the product of society. Since music is the “universal language of mankind” it represents human experiences that are common to us all. So when we write music from our experience are we not also writing about the experiences of others? If not how could they possible relate to the words and chord progressions we have chosen? Music belongs to the fans because music is a reflection of their experience and fans do own their experience, which is why they chose a certain piece of music in the first place; to enable them to access that experience again. After all if the fans don’t own their experiences then who does? Music would not be music without its listeners and co-creators.

As participants in music we immerse and mesh our imagination with it. We saturate music with our thoughts, feelings and our memories until the music becomes our own. Once we have owned our experience we then want to share it so that we do not feel alone. Even in the time of sheet music which was owned by the publisher one might argue that the home player and her audience owned the performance. Playing music at home via sheet music or improvisation was an experience shared by many. Music fans have always added their “framework” or “take” to the music that they love; be it a cover, a mix tape, a mash up or live performance.

My book "The Fan Experience" will have activities and some fun cartoons which are being created now. So here is one of the exercises.

www.thefanexperience.co.uk

"The entrepreneur builds an enterprise; the technician builds a job." – Michael Gerber

I recently read a couple of articles online one about the Olympics organisers expecting musicians to play for free and the other was a broader conversation on the same subject.

The reason many musicians will have this issue is because of their mindset. Many musicians see themselves as skilled labour and self-employed who should be paid per hour like any other job rather than entrepreneurs who are paid for their expertise and influence. 

You can choose to be self-employed and value your financial health in terms of the salary you earn per annum or you can choose to truly contribute to this industry and in a more holistic way by being in BUSINESS and value your financial health in terms of your assets. Why would you compare yourself to the venue staff in terms of how you should be paid?

This is where the game changes because with a business you can come to the table with assets of real value and create a joint venture and partnerships where all parties win.

Why be an hourly paid musician when you can be an artist/entrepreneur?

Getting paid for your time is also known as a "job." Getting paid through doing a deal being in the business of music.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.
George Bernard Shaw

Here they are I will create a free downloadable PDF about this in due course.

#1 They don't understand finance!

#2 Not Understanding Copyright. This is a copyright business if you don't know copyright you don't know music business at all!

#3 You Don't Know How To Put Together A Marketing CAMPAIGN! This is how the pros do it! Marketing and PR is much more than the usual "get more fans - use social media" stuff you see floating around the net. The fact of the matter is most self-styled music business marketing "experts" have never run an actual campaign in their town let alone their continent!

#4 You Want To Be A Star - wrong business. You want show business not music business.

#5 Chasing a Record Label Deal. You want the labels to court you instead.

#6 Not Playing Live Enough.

#7 Not Studying Music

From Visual.ly